ANNOUNCEMENT – INDICTMENT
FOR THE BRUTAL ATTACK OF THE POLICE FORCES ON OUR COLLEAGUES AND THE INJURY OF THE PRESIDENT OF EFE
Athens, 4/5/2012
The Union of Greek Photojournalists denounces the new brutal and
unprovoked attack by the special police forces of MAT against colleagues
who were covering yesterday’s rally in Syntagma square, as well as
today’s demonstration. This time victim was the President of
our Union, Marios Lolos, who is already hospitalized “for traumatic
brain injury caused by strike with a police baton (skull fracture
impressed) requiring surgical intervention”! We want to remind
that this is not the first time that the President of EFE is becoming a
target, moreover in the same way. In the 15th of December
2010 he was hit from behind on the head by a man of the MAT police
forces, while doing his job, and the very next day our union in its
announcement drew attention to the Ministers in charge “to follow through their responsibilities, because we are afraid that in the end we shall mourn victims”!
 |
| It was not the first time that Marios Lolos was in jured by the police forces while doing his job (on the left) |
We emphasize the fact that for one more
time information of the public becomes a target, despite assurances by
the (former) Minister of Protection (?) of the Citizen to EFE’s
representatives, in our meeting last July regarding similar incidents,
that “the political and physical leadership of EL.AS. (Greek Police)
is devoted to the protection of the democratic rights and treats the
information vocation with the needed sensitivity and shall make every
effort so that it can be exercised freely and unobstructed” (!!) nullifying these assurances.
The systematic and repeated attacks against the press workers, while
on duty, that violate even fundamental human rights, can be considered
far than random. Even in the most good faith, one could conclude that
these attacks are consciously exercised by several circles in order to
impose silencing of the free press with the also conscious attempt to
terrorize the free press workers.
Moreover we see that there is no development in similar brutal
attacks that took place previously, like the one against our colleague
journalist Manolis Kypraiou, who suffered permanent disability and we
also note that tens of named complaints from our colleagues and our
Unions regarding the provocative and brutal behavior of the police
forces remain unaddressed (like the one against our colleague Tatiana
Bolari) following the usual procedure of archiving any sworn
administrative inquiry.
After these incidents our Union will join the rest of the Unions and
the Federations in our sector in Greece and abroad, in the effort to
preserve the freedom of information and will stand in every way against
actions that undermine the foundations of democracy and attempt to
return us back into situations and regimes for which our people has
heavily paid and will never be repeated in our country.
For the ECTHE DEPUTY PRESIDENT THE GEN. SECRETARY
GIORGOS PAPATHANASIOU CHRISTINA ZAHOPOULOU
